Is this the India of our dreams?

BY: LAVANYA KARKI

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We are into the seventh decade of our independence and hence, it becomes instructive to ask: Is this the India of our dreams?

Yes, we have landed on the Moon, the Mars; we have stunned the world with our stellar economic progress; we have retained the honour of being the world’s largest democracy; we have shown considerable progress in uprooting some social evils that have plagued our society for centuries; we have demonstrated excellence in medicine, infrastructure, education, transportation, communication, military capabilities, science and technology and more. But the question remains unanswered: Is this the India of our dreams?

I don’t think so. There are 2 reasons for my position-

• EQUALITY- A DISTANT DREAM: The father of our Constitution, Dr. BR Ambedkar envisioned a society where political equality alone will not suffice, but rather a society based on social and economic equality will be required to build the India we can all be proud of. More than 75 years later, we cannot be sure of realizing that socially, politically and economically equal society, anywhere in the near future. We all may have one vote, one value, but as long as someone is looked down because of religion, race, caste, gender or place of birth and as long as we need reservations to uplift these sections of the society, equality will continue to be a distant dream.

• DEVELOPMENT- A CONFLICTED ASPIRATION: Over the decades, we have achieved considerable material progress in terms of agricultural production and industrial growth. So, in a sense, we have developed. But ‘Development’ today, loses its significance if it is isolated from its prefix- ‘Sustainable.’ When ecological stability is getting compromised at an unprecedent rate and when the security of our people gets threatened because of an incorrect notion of development, then Development per se is still a long way ahead. Gandhiji articulated the need for Sustainable Development in the words- “Nature has enough for every man’s need, but not enough for even one man’s greed.”

I think we have come a long way from what we were on the eve of independence. But I also think that as long as there is a Chotu working in the dhaba instead of going to a school; as long as there is a girl who feels unsafe at night; as long as there is a person who is stereotyped based on his background; as long there is a child who sleeps with an empty stomach while another throws leftover food in the bin; as long as there is an Indian who feels an alien in his own land; as long as there is one unhappy face- India will cease to be the India of our dreams.